What Should an Ideal 200 Hour Yoga TTC Curriculum Cover?

Ready to explore your potential in yoga with intensive training in the birth-land of this great art of good living? Browse through the multiple important listings of yoga schools in Rishikesh, India where the vein of Vedic wisdom and yoga runs deep and strong. This town is mythically recognized as the site of meditation of the ancient ascetics and has been glorified with the visit of many luminaries of the West.

However, a hotbed for schools sprouting with different yogic ideologies in focus, your options to practice in Rishikesh could get very confusing. To get a fair bit of exposure to all the principle ideas in yoga, choose a school offering a comprehensive teacher training curriculum.

Here is a possible course curriculum with separate modules designed to bring systematic improvement in mind and body of the practitioner:

Hatha Yoga-Beginner Series: To experience the coming together of different energies in your consciousness through yoga, initially you must understand the discipline in different steps—body, breath, mind, and so forth. Ideally, these aspects should be practiced simultaneously. Therefore, the Hatha yoga beginner series consisting of physical exercises (the Surya Namaskara or Sun Salutation being the most important asana in the series) —standing, kneeling, sitting, lying, and supine series of asanas must also be supported with classes on mantra awareness and theory of asanas to give you a lucid understanding and experience of simultaneity.

Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga- Primary Series: Ashtanga Yoga is the eight-fold path founded by the ancient sage Patanjali and later appropriated by the greatest master of our times, B.K.S. Iyengar. Iyengar yoga is characteristically fast and vigorous. In a Ashtanga series, each asana “flow” into the next. This great degree of fluidity in movement to be introduced in the Ashtanga module is the Vinyasa. Expect analytical classes on what is Vinyasa, and the importance of “dristi” or gaze in yoga, supporting the practical physical exercise classes.

Pranayama or Yogic Breathing Techniques: Pranayama breathing is taught to regulate prana or vital life force in a balanced way, not just for the duration the practitioner spends on the mat but for all times. Bringing your attention on “breath” an all-pervading activity with pranayama will systematically optimize your awareness and meditative state of mind. The seven main traditional pranayama exercises supported by theoretical classes on the nadis (channels of energies in the body according to yoga) will be included in this module.

Yoga Philosophy: Though, the philosophical underpinnings of yoga will be explained in almost every facet of the 200 hour teacher training curriculum, the separate module on philosophy is required to engage more specifically with topics like—history of yoga, the five-stages in the mind field, dream state according to yoga, meditation and yoga nidra, the eight limbs of Patanjali, and more.

Meditation and Mantra Chanting: Meditation is another all-pervasive aspect of yoga which is ideally to be maintained at every stage of life. To inject the idea and practice of meditation deeper under the skin of the practitioner, different techniques of concentration will be introduced through this module. Mantra chanting is of primary focus among these techniques, based upon the potential of sound energy.

Yoga Anatomy and Adjustment-Alignment: Yoga might be considered today as an alternative lifestyle, nevertheless, its strong roots in science could not be denied. To clarify any skepticism that you must be having about the scientific basis of yoga, learn avidly from the yoga anatomy module of a teacher training course. Relating to anatomy, a seamless transfer of focus is made to adjustment and alignment. Restoring balance and equilibrium in your practice, yoga adjustment and alignment is the way to perfect the practice more.

Ayurveda: Though introduced in brief, Ayurveda or the ancient Vedic science of healing is a significant part of the yoga teacher training course. Empowered with Ayurveda by a thorough insight into the body-mind mechanics and how it can relate to food habits, this module will prepare practitioners to maintain the yogic way of life in their future. The spectrum of this module will include three main mind-body constitutions, Ayurvedic cooking, and the definition of “health” as per Ayurveda.

Teaching-Methodology and Practicum: The most appealing prospective of a yoga teacher training curriculum is the set of skills covered under teaching-methodology. To understand the ways of communication and instruction at a class is addressed at length in this class. Practical features of yoga practice—sitting style in meditation, how to do digestive breathing, practicing laughter yoga, how to perform yoga dance, and more should be covered in this course module.